Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Copyright 2008 by the American Psychological Association 2008, Vol. 94, No. 3, 516–530 0022-3514/08/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.94.3.516 The Nonverbal Expression of Pride: Evidence for Cross-Cultural Recognition Jessica L. Tracy Richard W. Robins University of British Columbia University of California, Davis The present research tests whether recognition for the nonverbal expression of pride generalizes across cultures. Study 1 provided the first evidence for cross-cultural recognition of pride, demonstrating that the expression generalizes across Italy and the United States. Study 2 found that the pride expression generalizes beyond Western cultures; individuals from a preliterate, highly isolated tribe in Burkina Faso, West Africa, reliably recognized pride, regardless of whether it was displayed by African or American targets. These Burkinabe participants were unlikely to have learned the pride expression through cross-cultural transmission, so their recognition suggests that pride may be a human universal. Studies 3 and 4 used drawn figures to systematically manipulate the ethnicity and gender of targets showing the expression, and demonstrated that pride recognition generalizes across male and female targets of African, Asian, and Caucasian descent. Discussion focuses on the implications of the findings for the universality of the pride expression. Keywords: pride, self-conscious emotion, cross-cultural, universal, emotion recognition Of all the complex emotions . pride, perhaps, is the most plainly shame; Ekman & Friesen, 1986; Haidt & Keltner, 1999; Izard, expressed. 1971; Russell, 1991), these attempts have failed. As a result, the —Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals six basic emotions have a special status in the emotion literature. In contrast, emotions assumed to lack universal expressions have One of the major findings in the behavioral and social sciences received considerably less attention within the field of affective is the discovery that a small set of basic emotions—anger, disgust, science. In particular, researchers have largely neglected the self- fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise—have distinct, universally conscious (or social) emotions, such as embarrassment, pride, and recognized nonverbal expressions (Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Ek- shame. These emotions involve complex self-evaluative processes man, Sorenson, & Friesen, 1969; Izard, 1971). This finding, which (Tangney & Dearing, 2002; Tracy & Robins, 2004a), emerge later emerged from Ekman and colleagues’ (Ekman et al., 1969; Ekman in development than do basic emotions (M. Lewis, Alessandri, & & Friesen, 1971) seminal research on highly isolated preliterate Sullivan, 1992), are thought to be unique to humans and possibly tribal groups in Papua New Guinea, led many researchers to accept the great apes (Hart & Karmel, 1996), and play a central role in Darwin’s (1872) view that emotions and their expressions are a status seeking, dominance, and other fundamental social behaviors universal, evolved part of human nature. (Keltner & Buswell, 1997; Tracy & Robins, 2007c). Over the past few decades, several attempts have been made to However, recent research suggests that the self-conscious emo- identify additional universally recognized emotion expressions, tion of pride may have a recognizable nonverbal expression. The but, with a few possible exceptions (contempt, embarrassment, and pride expression, shown in Figure 1, includes the body (i.e., expanded posture, head tilted back) as well as the face (i.e., low intensity, non-Duchenne smile); it has been shown to be reliably Jessica L. Tracy, Department of Psychology, University of British recognized and distinguished from similar emotions (e.g., happi- Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Richard W. Robins, ness) using forced-choice and open-ended response methods; and Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis. it is reliably recognized by American adults and children as young We thank the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant MH20006), the as 4 years old (Tracy & Robins, 2004b; Tracy, Robins, & Lagat- National Institute of Aging (Grant AG022057), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (File #410-2006-1593) for their tuta, 2005). Pride recognition rates are comparable with recogni- support. We also thank Jill Bendziewicz, Simona Ghetti, Jean Traore, and tion rates for the basic emotions, and, like the basic emotions, pride Maggie Traore for their assistance in collecting the data for Studies 1 and can be recognized from a single snapshot image very quickly and 2; Michael Biehl and Dory Schachner for their assistance in Studies 3 and efficiently (Tracy & Robins, in press). Moreover, similar displays 4; and Erika Rosenberg for her assistance in FACS coding the stimuli. In have been documented in spontaneous nonverbal behaviors shown addition, Jessica L. Tracy thanks the members of her dissertation commit- in response to a pride-eliciting event, such as successful comple- tee for their helpful comments on the article, research methods, and study tion of a task (Belsky & Domitrovich, 1997; M. Lewis et al., 1992; design: Paul Ekman, Bob Emmons, Phil Shaver, and Dean Simonton. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed Jessica L. Stipek, Recchia, & McClintic, 1992; Weisfeld & Beresford, 1982) Tracy, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 and victory at the Olympic Games (Tracy & Matsumoto, 2007). West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada. E-mail: Together, these findings suggest that pride may merit inclusion [email protected] in the class of emotions thought to be universal and to have 516 PRIDE EXPRESSION 517 over the world demonstrating that individuals speaking a range of languages and steeped in a wide variety of cultural traditions reliably recognized the basic emotion expressions (Ekman et al., 1969, 1987; Izard, 1971). Third, more recent studies have demon- strated that emotion recognition generalizes across targets of dif- ferent cultures and ethnicities (e.g., Beaupre & Hess, 2005; Biehl et al., 1997). These studies manipulated the ethnicity of targets showing the expression and found reliable recognition of the basic emotion expressions across all ethnicities examined (African, Cau- casian, Chinese, Japanese); these findings also held across several perceiver cultures (e.g., Canada, Hungary, Japan, Poland, Sumatra, United States, Vietnam; Beaupre & Hess, 2005; Biehl et al., 1997; Matsumoto & Ekman, 1989). Fourth, a growing number of studies have examined the spontaneous production of emotion expressions across cultures and found that individuals from a diverse range of cultures (e.g., North American, East Asian, South and Central American, Western European, Eastern European) tend to show similar emotion expressions in similar situations, such as watching a stressful video or winning or losing a judo match in the Olympic games (e.g., Ekman, 1971; Matsumoto & Willingham, 2006). These studies suggest that emotion expressions are recognized Figure 1. The prototypical pride expression. The expression includes a across cultures because they are experienced and displayed across small smile, head tilted slightly (approximately 20°) back, expanded pos- cultures. ture, and arms akimbo with hands on hips. The individual pictured in the However, with the exception of production studies examining photo gave consent for his likeness to be published in this article. the spontaneous display of pride, researchers have yet to conduct similar cross-cultural or cross-ethnicity studies on recognition of the pride expression. In fact, in a comprehensive meta-analysis of evolved to serve specific adaptive functions, such as signaling emotion recognition studies, Elfenbein and Ambady (2002) iden- survival-relevant messages to one’s kin. Pride, in particular, is tified cross-cultural studies examining over 36 different emotion likely to play a functional role in the maintenance and enhance- expressions, but none searching for a pride expression. Thus, we ment of social status, an essential component of a social animal’s do not know whether pride is recognized outside of the United fitness. Individuals experience pride after a socially valued States, let alone by nonliterate, highly isolated individuals who achievement, and these feelings may alert them that their behavior have not been exposed to Western culture. We also do not know (or self) is valued by others and that they are thus unlikely to be whether pride is recognized across targets of different ethnic or rejected by the group and may deserve increased status (Leary, racial groups; all previous studies on the pride expression have Tambor, Terdal, & Downs, 1995). These feelings may also rein- used only Caucasian American targets. If the pride expression force the socially valued behaviors that generated the emotion evolved to communicate fitness-promoting messages about an (Hart & Matsuba, 2007; Herrald & Tomaka, 2002; Weiner, 1985). individual’s status, then we would expect to see cross-cultural At the same time, the interpersonal nonverbal expression of pride evidence for recognition. In fact, if the pride expression is an may serve a complementary adaptive function by alerting others evolved part of human nature, then it should be recognized across that the proud individual merits increased acceptance and status. cultures that have had no contact with each other. If individuals